A multiple-choice technique provides several choices for the students to answer. The choices consist of one right anwer, while the others are
distracters. 4
Matching techniques This technique allows the students to match against each other, for
example matching paragraph with the title. 5
Dichotomous techniques In dichotomous technique, the students are presented with statements
that are related to the target text and they are offered by only two choices. Examples of this technique are exercises to decide true or
false or agree disagree. 6
Short-answer techniques In the short-answer technique, the student reads the text provided and
responds to questions by giving only short answers in a sentence or two.
7 The summary test
The summary test is a test technique that rquires the student to summarize the main idea or key points of the text that they have read.
This indeed will check the students understanding of the text based on the points of summary that they make.
i. The Problems of Reading Comprehension
Students are very likely to face some problems in reading comprehension, especially comprehending a second language text.
Comprehension itself is not an easy task. Hudson in Stott 2001 says that readers sometimes feel that they comprehend a text, but have different
interpretation to the writer. It means that the process of getting message from a text is unsuccessful.
Duke 2003:11 points out some problems regarding students’ reading comprehension, as follows:
1 Students lack reading strategies,
2 Students lack relevant prior knowledge,
3 Students fail to apply relevant prior knowledge,
4 Students lack of reading engagement.
Two key points of problems stated above are related to students’ prior knowledge. It shows that the role of prior knowledge is important in
determining the success of students’ reading comprehension. Accordingly, to solve the problems a teacher needs to select a proper method that can fix the
main problem of students’ reading comprehension related to activating and applying prior knowledge.
11 Schema Theory
a. Definition of Schema
“A schema plural schemata is a hypothetical mental structure for representing generic concepts stored in memory” Ajideh, 2003. He adds that
“Schemata are created through experience with people, objects, and events in the world.” He, then, summarizes that schema can be referred as the structured
background knowledge, which leads people to expect or predict aspects in their interpretation.
According to Anderson in Wiseman 2008, a schema can be interpreted as an individual’s collection of prior knowledge that provides a
context for meaningful interpretation of new information. Carrell 1984 in Zhao and Zhu 2012 categorizes schema into three
types consisting linguistic schema, content schema and formal schema. Linguistic schema refers to readers’ existing knowledge of linguistics such as
knowledge about phonetics, grammar and vocabulary. Content schema refers to the background knowledge about the topic of a text Carrel, 1988 in Zhao
Zhu, 2012. Zhao and Zhu 2012 add that this knowledge involves many things such as topic familiarity, cultural knowledge, conversations and
previous experience of domain. Among the three types, this schema has the most important role in readers’ understanding of a text. Lastly, formal schema
is defined as “abstract, encoded, internalized, coherent, patterns of meta- linguistic, discoursed, and textual organization that guide expectations in our
attempts to understand a meaningful piece of language” Carrell, 1983 in Zhao and Zhu, 2012. This knowledge involves knowledge about rhetorical,
organizational structure, and language structures of different kinds of texts. Those three types of schemata played roles on how a reader gets sense of
meaning of the text. From the statements above, schema can be defined as a mental device
that all human being has as the effect of world experiences kept in memory. Schema exists in three types including linguistic, content and formal schema.
Knowledge of schema is applicable to connect between the existing
knowledge of world and new concept that readers encounter as they read a text.
Considering the beneficial role of schema in one’s mind, schema theory has strongly influenced reading research. Khemlani and Lynne in
Ajideh 2003 claims that since the late 1960s, numerous theorists Goodman, 1970; Smith, 1978 have developed interactive theories of reading which place
great importance on the role of the reader and the knowledge he or she brings to bear on the text in the reading process.
Schema theory is based on the belief that every act of comprehension involves one’s knowledge of the world developed up to that point Anderson
in Wiseman, 2008. Referring to this, in teaching reading teachers should teach their students how to use their schema and store information for easy
retrieval. This existing schema and knowledge will be later used in bridging new concepts they encounter in reading to create meaning.
b. Schema-Building Strategies in Teaching Reading
